Children, Interrupted
by Beatrice29
Summary: Vaguely, she was aware that he was staring at her. That was fine. People stared at her all the time. Her reputation preceded her. What put her on edge was the lack of hate and disgust in his eyes.
1. Boy, Interrupted

When he was nearly nine years old, Steve Randle's mother left him.

It wasn't a surprise, really.

In a small, dirty, neighbourhood like his in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the chances of a parent leaving their family to start a new life elsewhere were greater than a kid like him would go on to graduate high school.

It wasn't as if God had these patterns of life set in stone for every boy born into his neighbourhood.

But that was just how things ran in the east side of Tulsa.

You lose a parent, you dropout of highschool, or you end up dead on the streets.

Sometimes, Steve would catch himself wondering if he would hit the trifecta. It certainly wouldn't surprise him if he did. But as soon as he would start to think about which way his life would lead, he would always push away the feeling of pure dread in his stomach and focus on whatever was in front of him.

Just like his old man would say; ignorance is bliss.

But after Violet Randle left, leaving her son in the hands of her pathetic drunkard of a husband, Steve learnt the valuable lesson that ignorance isn't bliss.

Ignorance led to confusion, anger, and bitterness.

The day Violet Randle left was just a regular old afternoon at the Randle household on 23 Emerson Street. Frank was out the garage, fixing tyres and other whatnots and wouldn't be back till late reeking of booze.

Steve sat on his bed, trying to read his mom's battered down copy of Huckleberry Finn, while the tornado called Sodapop Curtis raced around his room; a disastrous attempt to be superman.

Steve didn't care too much for his friends antics until the crash of hollow porcelain onto his hardwood floor cracked into his ears. Sodapop looked down then up at his face, alarmed with pale panic.

Steve's heart raced as he looked at what used to be his lamp.

For as long as he could remember, Steve was always lectured about not being wasteful.

They didn't have the money to replace new things, so it was important they took care of all things carefully.

When he was younger, he was out in his backyard playing ball with Soda until it ended up with a busted window.

That time he faced the end of his old man's belt, and wanting to be able to sit without pain Steve sprung into action.

He scrambled to pick up and hide the pieces with Soda, but all attempts were lost as the door swung open with a mighty bang.

At the door, Violet Randle stood, her eyes wide with alarm. She looked at the two boys then at the mess on the ground and the alarm in her eyes distinguished.

The look of utter sadness in her blue eyes shone through a thin layer of tears as she looked at what once had been her brother's lamp.

This sad and lonely look was the one Steve would always see on his mother these days while she stared outside the kitchen sink for hours and hours.

"Don't get mad at Steve, Mrs Randle," Soda said, bowing his head down. "Steve's done nothing… I broke the lamp and I'm awfully sorry ma'am."

"It's alright," Violet sighed softly, moving forward and placing a hand onto Sodapop's shoulder before he could swoop down to collect the porcelain shards. "This is why we can't have nice things. You go on home and be a good boy to your momma now, won't you?"

Soda gave his momma a sunny smile with a nod, and with a small salute to his best buddy, he raced off to his own home.

Steve held out his arms happily, hoping for a hug, and Violet delivered it without a smile. As his momma squeezed him tightly, he deeply inhaled the soft smell of lemon verbena and soap that only belonged to his momma.

"You're lucky to have a good friend, Steve. Make sure you never let the good ones get away."

Then she tucked him in bed. Soft kisses and soft singing, to lull him into sleep, so that she could slip away sometime in the night to start her life anew with signed divorce papers in her hands.

It's been six or seven years since it happened, but it wasn't something Steve could forget so easily.

At times he thought he could, and then he could move on with his life without any grudges. But every time his old man would swing sloppy blows at him, kick him out screaming what a no good bastard he was, and getting jumped on the streets, he'd just wish his bitch of a mom would die and burn in hell again and again.

If she had never left, Frank wouldn't be wasting away all of their money on booze and take his miseries out on Steve.

If Violet was still here, Steve wouldn't have to crash at the Curtis' every stupid weekend.

If Violet had never left then he wouldn't be out on the streets so much and get into fights every second day.

If Violet wasn't a coward, things would've been a hell of a lot different.

The sad thing was that he didn't want to admit to himself the actual truth.

That even if she had stayed, nothing in his life would've changed.


	2. Girl, Interrupted

When she was nearly seven years old, Katherine-Scarlett left her father in cold, hard New York City for the dreary suburbs of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Being seven years old, there wasn't much for her to mind, apart from her dolls and going to school. It wasn't until her maid had packed all of her and her brother's things into many suitcases, and her mother yanked her onto a plane at Idlewild Airport, that she was coldly told that she was never going to see her father again.

She remembered crying hysterics, not because she missed her father, but because she didn't understand what was going on. Being seven years old, she could only ask why they were moving and why the older von Walderberg wasn't joining them.

Her brother, Paulie, sat next to her with a stony grimace and silent tears.

In tough situations he never verbalised his pain. He just held himself together until the pain was gone, then allow himself to focus on being happy.

Just like their mother, Charlotte, whatever emotions he felt; hysterics, anger, confusion, or whatever was brewing in his heart, he concealed it under a cold mask of indifference.

He always did.

It was somehow as if that plane ride from Idlewild to Tulsa symbolised his own transformation from the baby boy of the von Walderberg line to the man of their new family; the Holdens.

It was their mother's maiden name.

The Holdens were comrades of the Confederacy, and were staunchly proud of their Louisiana roots, save for the fact that it was well after the Restoration, that they had migrated to Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Their name only started meaning something after her great grandpappy, Paul Clarence Holden acquired most of the oil rigs in Tulsa county and made a million a night.

Charlotte Florence Holden liked to say she was hailed from the mighty South, leaving acquaintances with the impression of great big Georgian plantations, white lady refinery, and summertime sweetness so sought after in Southern wives. The truth of the matter was, she was from the South, just not as deep as she liked to have claimed.

Tulsa, Oklahoma nowhere near captured the romance of gallant soldiers and white opulence of the Deep South.

All it had to offer to the ritzy Upper East side von Walderberg's was a stately home in the western suburbs of town and a monthly allowance from their retired grandpappy.

With carefully constructed false pretenses Charlotte Holden reentered Tulsa society with the grace and elegance that won her Miss Oklahoma 1941. She became the town favorite again by hosting the morning news show and running the annual Miss Blue Ribbon pageant.

Paul fitted right into the crowd like an old beloved baseball mitt with his churlish friendliness and eagerness for sport. He never showed any pain of being deprived of a father figure, but Katherine noticed how frequently he and his best buddy Darryl, would tag Darryl's dad. They looked like the ideal father with his sons picture, save one son being blonde with blue eyes.

Somehow though, Katherine didn't seem to meld in just like her mother and brother did. She hated the country town she was locked into, and she hated the dumb southern twang the people talked with.

It didn't mean she wasn't the outsider in her age group, although she felt like it. She was very much in with the crowd she was supposed to be with. But Tulsa wasn't her home; she was a Yankee, pure and simple.

Katherine ever wondered whether her brother and mother ever missed the Upper East. She wondered if they ever missed William von Walderberg, her father who she thought about nearly everyday.

If they did, they never showed signs that they did; only smiles of contentment with her slow lives in Tulsa.

And Katherine hated that.


	3. Candy Store

**September 1st, 1963**

"So you've got all your things?"

Sixteen year old Katherine looked back at her mother as they sat in a shiny blue Cadillac in the parking lot of Will Rogers High.

"Yes," Katherine said, refraining from rolling her eyes. "I just needed a ride mother. Please stop coddling me."

"I know, I'm sorry," said Charlotte with a small sad smile. "It's just – this is your first year at school without Paul. You can't possibly blame me for being a bit worried."

At Katherine's irritated glare, Charlotte stopped and sat up straighter in her Cadillac. "Oh sugar I know you're all grown up. I get it. You'll be fine. I'll stop it right now."

"I'll be better than fine," said Katherine, sitting up straighter. "Paul won't be around to annoy me and now all eyes will be on me."

Her mother seemed content with that response but her eyes scanned over the school building with a disapproving frown. "I swear, this school gets worse and worse by the year."

Taking that as her cue to leave Katherine reached for the door.

"Now I've called up Texaco to have Joe check up on your car," her Mother called out as she exited the car. "But Joe can't look at it till next Thursday. So he's asked that garage out east to look at it. They're going to tow it today and it'll be good as new by tomorrow."

Katherine looked back at her Mother with shock. "East?"

Her mother just sighed, as if being in the broke section of town wasn't where the murderers and hoodlums resided.

"Oh Katherine, trash they may be, but those folks on the east aren't completely useless. The only things they exceed in life are drinking, gambling their lives away, and work around anything mechanical and oily."

Satisfied that her mother hadn't completely lost her mind, she closed the door behind her and stepped away from the car. Butterflies flew around her stomach as she looked before at Will Rogers High before her mother called out to her.

"You're absolutely the best thing this lousy town and high school has seen."

Her mother lowered her sunglasses, exposing the frighteningly beautiful blue sapphires she had for eyes.

"But a pretty face isn't going to get you far without a commanding presence. And remember… there are only-"

"-two types of people in this world," Katherine joined in synchronisation with her mother's life mantra. "Winners and losers. I know, mother. I know."

"And are we winners or losers, Katie-Scarlett?"

When she was younger, Katherine would burst out the answer with a vigorous explosion only mindless children could pull off. She puffed out her chest and would exclaim the answer with enormous pride, because it would always make her mother beam with joy.

But as she grew older, and the more and more it seemed impossible to achieve that expectation, Katherine's response became less enthusiastic.

But she nonetheless always answered.

"We're winners."

Charlotte lips curled into a smile, careful not to crinkle her eyes too much. "That's my girl. Now go on and show them."

Without a goodbye or any indication that she would pick her up from school that afternoon, her mother drove off.

Guess it wasn't worth waiting to see her daughter safely enter the hallways then.

Katherine just pushed away the small sinking feeling of disappointment that settled in her stomach and stood taller, with a bright smile.

It didn't take long for her to spot her group of girlfriends, waiting for her on the steps of Will Rogers High just as they had promised.

Their clean, pristine, dresses which contrasted starkly against the drab grey of the concrete made it easy for her to spot them in the sea of students. The common folk avoided entering their sacred invisible circle, allowing Katherine to easily navigate her way back up to her group.

Katherine had heard the rumors and whispers about her and her small group of friends being compared to a pack of piranhas.

But to her? They were the loveliest friends she could've asked for.

They all squealed and exchanged hugs when she caught up with them.

Lisa Holbrook, Katherine's best friend since fifth grade before deciding that she and Katherine were in competition in their freshman year, immediately linked her arms through hers with a bright smile. "I'm sooo freaking glad to be back. Fort Lauderdale was such a drag."

"At least you got the beach," Ginny Collins said enviously. "I was stuck here all summer while you all went away."

"At least your brother didn't take your car for a drag race," Katherine announced with an irritated sigh. "He busted up my engine and now it's in repair. Do you know how embarrassing is it not to have a car? At least my mother's going to let me use her Cadillac while it's gone."

It was a complete lie, and the girls knew it.

Charlotte Holden would rather die than let her children take a joyride in her Cadillac. But Katherine's girlfriends just squealed excitedly, gushed about how cool that was and begged to catch rides with her to school.

Lisa began to explain to them why her summer vacation in Fort Lauderdale was horrible and Katherine slowly tuned her out as she searched the parking lot.

Other students got out of their cars or were clumped into their groups, chattering away being glad to be back with their friends. However, Katherine was searching for one person in particular and beamed when she finally found the handsome dark haired Junior that leaned casually against his shiny blue Mustang.

Diana Fowlstone followed Katherine's longing gaze and smiled. "Looks like Bob Sheldon's got a sweet new ride."

"He really is a catch," Lisa sighed wistfully. "He's rich, he's sporty, he's smart, he's handsome, and-"

"And he's completely taken," Katherine snapped, suddenly irked by her girlfriends' mindless drooling. "Or have you all forgotten he's dating Caroline Munnsfield?"

"Oh, I've heard," Ginny nodded eagerly, eyes sparkling wild with excitement. "They've been seeing each other all this summer! They're absolutely, positively, wild for each other!"

"She won Miss Teen Blue Ribbon, this year," Lisa added in with a haughty sniff. "Honestly don't see how though. She wasn't even that good."

"And she's a senior," Katherine couldn't help but curl her lips in disgust. "Like puh-lease. Can't she find guys her own age to date?"

The girls giggled in agreement, bonding over their mutual hatred for the blonde senior, who in Katherine's opinion, was the biggest bitch that had ever walked the halls of Will Rogers High followed by her.

Caroline had curves in all the right places with ash blonde hair she kept in a high ponytail. She was popular, not just by her looks but by the way she terrorized the entire student body just by narrowing her hazel eyes on her next potential target. Even her close group of friends seemed intimidated by her, and so far the only person in the entire school who didn't feel threatened by her was Bob Sheldon, who seemed arrogantly content to be in her clutches.

Darryl Curtis was the golden boy of Will Rogers High, Katherine thought, but now that was Bob Sheldon's title; and he was worth so much more than Curtis. He was only a Junior, but he was the epitome of envy.

Girls wanted to be with him and guys wanted to be him.

He was the smartest guy in his grade, and he'd been on the varsity football team since his freshman year. His family's wealth allowed him to be properly dressed at all times, with a fashionable Rolex and a shiny blue Mustang to match his eyes.

Not only that, he was drop dead gorgeous, with perfectly groomed dark hair, sharp angular features, and blue eyes to die for.

Bob Sheldon was everything Katherine looked for in a man, and she knew that she was going to marry him someday when he was ready to give her his grandmother's Harry Winston.

The Holdens and Sheldons were so close, they were basically family.

But not the incestuous way.

They'd been business partners and family friends since they became two of the four families that prospered through the oil rigs in Tulsa county back in Katherine's great grandpappy's days. Their grandfathers grew up together as best pals and fought in the Great War, and then their children became amicable friends.

It just so happened that Linda Fairbank, Charlotte Holden's best friend from high school, married Richard Sheldon, becoming their second son's godmother. All the more reason to be connected to the Sheldon's, Paul and Katherine grew up treating Andrew, Robert, and Emmett Sheldon as cousins.

Unfortunately, being around Bob Sheldon basically everyday outside of the school context wasn't a blessing. Being one year her senior, Bob only saw Katherine as a little sister; something that she resented bitterly. She was the prettiest, if not, the most popular girl in her grade, yet he never glanced at her in any other way but brotherly love and friendship.

It was like he knew her deepest secret and was willingly teasing her for his own amusement.

Linda and Charlotte would always dream on the "what if's" of Bob and Katherine becoming a couple, and Katherine would silently dream with them in agreement.

All she had to do was prove to him that she was so much more than a friend and little sister figure. Once that was done, he would definitely see that he was foolish idiot for wasting his time on Caroline Munnsfield, and Katherine would be set for life.

The boy in question shifted his steely gaze in Katherine's direction, and a heart melting boyish smile was shot towards her. Katherine smiled back automatically, ignoring the venomous sneer that appeared on Caroline's face.

Katherine swallowed her flutters and bravely waved back at Bob and the blonde bitch.

The bell finally rang, signalling the start of their year and Katherine headed for her first class with Lisa and Ginny flanked by her sides.

As per usual, the corridor parted for them as they walked down not saying a single word to any of the familiar faces that stared at them. But this was her year. Katherine could feel it.

She was a winner, and Katherine was going to show them exactly who Charlotte Holden's daughter was.


End file.
